Meta withdraws support for digital collectibles as it redirects focus
Meta has now announced to users that it would no longer support NFTs as of April 11. However, the current NFTs on the Instagram app will remain active until their deactivation on the said date.
Meta is winding down its NFT operation
Meta has been at the forefront of facilitating NFT adoption after launching NFTs on Instagram months ago. However, it is now putting an end to the tests on the selling and minting of NFTs on the platforms and the ability to share NFTs on Meta.
Stephane Kasriel, Meta commerce and fintech lead, announced on Twitter that it is winding down on digital collectibles as the company tries to focus on ways to support people, creators, and businesses. Instead, the company has chosen to directly focus on the areas they can impact at scale, such as monetization on Reels, messaging, and improving Meta Pay.
Instagram users have now been alerted to the change in Meta, which is the final step towards winding up NFTs which was also displayed on its help center. In addition, it will no longer be connected or associated with third-party digital wallets. Meta will start to delete digital collection data in its system, such as wallet addresses, following its Privacy Policy and their Digital Collectible Terms of Use.
Meta on the decline
Meta’s stock has fallen considerably more than other tech companies, resulting in massive layoffs. Not only that but after spending an enormous amount of funds on metaverse research and development, it seems no one wants to use the metaverse created by Mark Zuckerberg. Not even Meta’s employees.
The prior NFT integration on Meta was a move by CEO Mark Zuckerburg to make 2023 the year of efficiency, including the Reels Play bonus program. Meanwhile, the end of these products follows last year’s shutdown of Meta-backed cryptocurrency, Libra, and Meta’s Novi digital wallet.
Although Meta is exiting NFTs, other companies are getting into the market even though it had a collapse in 2022 that saw it shed billions in value after the 2021 hype.
